The Portland daily press., 1887-11-24

The tragedy deepens rapidly. King Lo-
crime enters wounded. and Estrild stabs her
self. Maddened by the insults Of Guendo-
len, Sabrna throws herself into the river
Severn whence Milton brought her-changed
to a river goddess-for pearl to set in his
poem) Guendolen and MADAM. half relent-
ing, half confused by their wrongs and re-
yenge, watch her as she is borne down the
stream.
GUENDoLEN.
Save herl God pardon me.
MADAM.
The water whirls
Down out of sight her tender face, and hurts
Her soft, light limbs to deathward. Goa forgive
Thee, sayest thou, mother? Wonldst thou bid
GUENDoLEN.
What have we done?
MADAM.
The work we came to do.
And throughIthe,solemn austerity, like that
of tragic heroine of Greek drama, with
which Guendolen sums up the power of fate
and evil, break the tender accents of her
closing words:
Sleep Queen and King,
Forgiven. and if-God knowS-belng dead ye 1--we,
And keep remembrance yet OF me-forglye.
Perhaps, under the influence of the power
full first impression, 1t is not possible to esti-
mate the value of Locrine, as compared with
its authors other works. 1t certainly is one
of his great poems; and in it the redundancy
of his matchless music that now or then de-
layed or confused expression. has been re-
placed by more direct and simple beauty,
with little less of the magnificent resources
that make his verse like the harmony of a
great orchestra. As soon as Locrine shall
haye officially appeared from the London
publishing house of Messrs. Chatto 81 Win
dus, the applause of critics on both sides of
the Atlantic will hail Mr.. Swinburne's large
and mythic tragedy.
A curious tale is told concerning the pur-
chase of the right to print Locrine. Messrs.
Worthington of New York offered an adj
vance copy Of it to several newspapers, at
the price of 100 dollars. The Times had de-
clined it at that figure, then repented. sent to
Messrs. Worthington to secure it, and were
told that their offer came three hours too
late--Locrine was sold to the Sun. Then the
tragedy suddenly became indispensable and
precious; the special correspondent Of the
Times was instructed to telegraph L0crine
from London at the expense of 5000 dollars.
Moral He who will not when he may
When he will he has to pay.
A wordiof reply to the natural question,
who are the Aricksy naatrons, mentioned
in these columns last week, as having to do
with the story of sweet Anne Pager" No
cipher investigations will ever discover in
Shakespeare the name; it is not : probable
that Lord Bacon was acquainted with the
Mesdames Aricksy for it was misleading
on the part of the compositor for the word
tricksy, applied to Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page,
1t is no more extraordinary, however. than
the error a few weeks since that made these
same columns speak of the balefatl influence
of the early troubadours, when tauaefh was
the adjective to their address.
This is one aspect of the friendly feud ex-
istent between the types and the pen. On
the other side, it may be here frankly con-
fessed that once, the occasion arising to men,
ton person honored in literature. some
imp of the inkstand led the pen to write him
down as William instead of Henry-of course
these were not the names really concerned
and the compositor with prompt charity cor
rected the blunder and saved the journalist
from the disproportionate remorse that visits
such unintentional crimes. 1t is somewhat
the fashion of the pens to complain of the
types--but many instances are on record
where the types have saved the situation en-
dangered by the pens. But they never tell
tales out of school, they must proyerbially
follow copy if it takes them out of the win
dow" and heaven forgive those who cause
confusion and loss of time which is money,
by sending to the typesettels illegible MSS.